


Trust Me

by plant_boi_potter



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Crying, Feelings, Hogwarts, James Potter is an asshole, Loneliness, M/M, Marauders era, Memories, Pensive, Regulus is 17, Regulus is vulnerable, Sex Mentions, Sort of Underage, Unrequited Love, conspiring, make sure to read all tags, misleading title, moral twists of main character (James), sirius black has the upper hand over his little brother, the illusion of cheating, thin plot, use of a pet name or two
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-12
Updated: 2019-01-12
Packaged: 2019-10-08 18:48:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17391707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plant_boi_potter/pseuds/plant_boi_potter
Summary: Regulus finally decides to use the pensive his mother gave him years before her death, but he can't dredge any reminders of her up because they're all clouded with memories of James fucking Potter, so he sits for hours, retrieving memory after painful memory, alone in the storeroom of what was once the Black family mansion.





	Trust Me

**Author's Note:**

> GENERAL PREMISE:  
> They fuck for person A to get what they want from person B and then leaves. This causes heartbreak and crying readers (hopefully).  
> The song that prompted this work: Jeremy Zucker - all the kids are depressed.  
> Please leave your comments/thoughts/feelings! I love reading them all!

"Ugh. When are we going to stop doing this?"  
James quirked an eyebrow not-so-subtly before mouthing against Regulus' exposed neck.  
"You want me to stop?" He mumbled, pulling away and letting Regulus' head fall back against the flagstone.  
"No". His lips crashed into James' once more, pressing his cautiously in all the private crevices of his mouth, exploring the territory laid bare underneath him.  
The muttering and fervent glances seemed to get more frequent as the colder weather set in. The stares were more blatant, unafraid. But Regulus didn't mind, especially not when Sirius looped his arm around his neck.  
It was like a split-second of happiness, a fraction of the utopia that he'd never be a real part of opened up and he glanced at what could have been.  
He welcomed it.  
"Are those hickies Reg?" He snickered but Regulus was too elated to catch the bitterness in it. He merely pulled his robes a little tighter around his neck where the purple bruises were fading at the slowest of rates.  
Instead of answering, he just blushed and ducked out of Sirius' grip, shuffling away into a small band of his Slytherin friends instead. The place he belonged. 

+++

Sneaking through the castle was no easy feat, especially when it came to the vile man that was Argus Filch and his wretched cat Mrs. Norris.  
Regulus put up with the leering as he hastily scampered up another set of stairs, further and further from the safety of the dungeons.  
Suddenly there was hot breath on his shoulder and he broke into goosebumps.  
Regulus managed to regain his articulate speech after stuttering violently on the first try. "You've changed your cologne." He panicked slightly as his nose was assaulted with the cool tones of Forest Pine, James laid a reassuring palm over the back of Regulus' trembling hand.  
"Lily said she liked it." He spoke so deeply, with the husky scent that was so familiar and so JAMES that Regulus glossed over the comment, instead, leaning heavily on James' chest.  
He just hummed in appreciation that James was here, with him, right now.  
"I'm sorry". James mumbled and for a moment Regulus was thrown out of the pensive.  
He found himself screaming at dark, empty walls, his head in his hands just rocking, slowly.  
"Stop playing these games with me!" He yelled - not for the first time that night, before bringing his wand - hand still trembling - up to his temple.  
He screwed his eyes up as he extracted another memory. 

+++

He clawed at his Mark, and almost saw James' heart splinter at that moment and wished he could take everything back. "I'm so sorry - If I knew..."  
"I know Reggie..." James said nothing after that, cradling the weeping seventeen year old. He pressed his temple into Regulus' hair and continued to rock them both gently on the second floor girls' bathrooms. 

+++

He knew it was awful - bolting up to the Gryffindor common rooms like that but Merlin, he just needed someone. He needed James. He didn't know where he belonged and he just wanted to curl up in the safe, loving, protective arms of his lover.  
He burst into the common room and detected an instantaneous lull in conversation.  
It was expected, of course. He was in full Slytherin garb - even his socks were green.  
But when Lily Even's flounced down the stairs with messy hair and bright green eyes on the arms of James FUCKING Potter, he lost it. "What the fuck? What the hell is the Mudblood doing here." He wasn't aware he spat it. And then he was. The air went cold as James dropped Lily's arm. The fire burnt in the hearth but all Regulus could feel was chills as James strode towards him, his wand pointed at his throat, where hands once would have been. 

***

"I came to talk to you." The word 'baby' lingered a little too long on the edge of his tongue before he bit it back.  
"Why?"  
James' voice was hard as ice and it felt like he had already been killed but the worst was yet to come.  
Yet again, Regulus forced himself to leave the pensive and fight the urge to claw at the God Forsaken tattoo that had fucked this all up.  
With a deep breath, he drove himself back into the pensive, the empty sockets of the Dark Mark boring into him all the way through the ordeal.  
"I thought you loved me?" He whispered, as if he was scared of the answer - although by now, he already knew.  
If it didn't fall from James' lips maybe he could pretend a little longer.  
"Really Reggie?" The pet name stung. "I thought you knew better" And with that, thirty sickles were dumped into the outstretched hand of Sirius Black, clad in boiled leather and the smug grin only an older child can posses.  
"I told you he'd tell you everything by the end of January".

In hindsight, he should have known. That's what he told himself as he stared once more into the cracked and blemished pensive. After all why on Earth would James Potter want to kiss him? Touch him? Look into his eyes as he told him his deepest secrets, fears, fantasies...  
He watched himself play with the sex hair that was attached to said boy - "I'm his best friend's brother" he had whispered to himself, and the memory stung as a note of previous pride rang through the dank, empty room. He watched from above as his own arm drooped protectively over James' exposed chest.  
New, sparkling tears threatened to fall onto an already stained face as he forced himself to bottle more and more memories alone.


End file.
